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Friday, 9 December 2016

After a coup and 22 years
of authoritarian rule, The Gambia’s President Yahya Jammeh conceded power in
elections on December 1. Swaziland, another of Africa’s small authoritarian
nations, can learn from The Gambia that there is strength in unity, says Swazi
activist Bheki Dlamini, writes
Kenworthy News Media.

Swaziland and The Gambia are
two of Africa’s smallest nations, both less than 20.000 km2 and with
populations below 2 million. Both got their independence from Great Britain in
the sixties, and both are more or less engulfed by, and to a large degree
dependent on, a much larger and more powerful neighbour.

Strength in unity
Since the reopening of multi-party rule, the opposition in Gambia had remained
weak and fragmented, and its victory against Jammeh in the presidential
elections would not have come about, had they not decided to form a coalition
recently, insists young activist Bheki Dlamini.

Bheki Dlamini knows the
price of fighting for democracy in a dictatorship. He was tortured, charged
with terrorism and imprisoned for nearly four years in one of absolute monarch
King Mswati III’s prisons. He had to flee Swaziland in fear of his life not
long after the court dismissed the charges against him and released him.

And from the vantage point
of exile in cold Scandinavia, Bheki believes that the democratic movement in
Swaziland needs to unite as in The Gambia, if they are to gain true democracy.

– I am overwhelmed by the
humbleness and political maturity shown by the Gambian opposition leaders to
swallow their pride and put their country first in forming the coalition. The
democratic movement in Swaziland is fragmented and too weak to challenge our
undemocratic regime, says Dlamini.

Big challenges
Even though there are similarities between The Gambia and Swaziland, there are
also differences, especially as Swaziland is still fighting for laying the
foundation for multi-party democracy, Bheki Dlamini says.

– Uniting the democratic
movement has been the most challenging endeavor of the movement. The Swaziland
United Democratic Front (SUDF) is trying to unite the forces but is facing big
challenges.

Why, for instance, are some organisations that claim to be in
pursuit of democracy not part of the SUDF? We need unity, but are our leaders
willing to swallow their pride like the Gambians and build a united coalition,
he asks rhetorically.

Dlamini believes that
instead of focusing on ideology and personal differences in forming such a
coalition, the respective leaders and organization should focus on what unites
them.

– And what unites us is
that we want to bring down King Mswati’s undemocratic rule. No one organisation
in Swaziland can deliver democracy alone. Our narrow self- and organisational
interests are not taking us anywhere. Our division and weaknesses are
prolonging the suffering of the Swazi people; the unemployed, the sick, the
elderly, the rural poor. We need everyone who agrees on the need for democracy
to come together. We are stronger united than divided.

Wednesday, 7 December 2016

New
Afrobarometer-report shows that Africans still cautiously embrace democracy. In
the small absolute monarchy of Swaziland, support for democracy is low but
rising. In many other countries it is falling, writes
Kenworthy News Media.

‘Do
Africans still want democracy,’ independent research network Afrobarometer asks
Africans in a new
report? The answer seems to be a cautious and qualified ‘yes’. In
Swaziland, a small absolute monarchy where parties are banned and the king
appoints the government and controls everything from the economy to the judiciary,
numbers are very low but rising.

According
to young democracy-activist, Bheki Dlamini, the main reason for the low numbers
is the absolute monarch and his regime, who control all land and have distorted
the word ‘democracy,’ and the fact that the country lacks democratic
precedence.

Less than
half want democracyIn the
Afrobarometer-report, 45 percent of Swazis polled in the report see democracy
as preferable to having a non-democratic government, which is the lowest of all
the 36 countries in the survey apart from Sudan, where 44 percent see democracy
as preferable.

In
neighbouring South Africa, the percentage is 64 percent, and in Burundi,
Senegal and Botswana, who top the list, the percentages are 86, 85 and 83
percent respectively.

Other
figures show that 65 percent of Swazis polled reject one-party rule (compared
to 50 percent in Mozambique, 72 percent in South Africa and 93 percent in
Sierra Leone); 86 percent reject military rule (33 percent in Egypt, 67 percent
in South Africa and 93 percent in Mauritius); and 24 percent prefer democracy
to authoritarian regimes (9 percent in Mozambique, 35 percent in South Africa
and 74 percent in Mauritius).

Democracy
gaining ground
On the upside, Swaziland is one of the countries of the 36 African countries polled
that has seen the biggest positive change in favour of democracy in the last 5
years.

24
percent of Swazis polled today said they both preferred democracy and rejected
one-party and military rule, as well and a Presidential dictatorship, compared
to 16 percent in 2011.

In many
other countries, including South Africa, Zambia, Botswana and Nigeria, support
for democracy has waned or remained more or less unchanged in the last five
years, albeit from a higher level of support than in Swaziland.

A question
of landThese are
the numbers, polled in face-to-face interviews with a representative number of
Swazis, but how are they to be understood?

President
of the Swaziland Youth Congress, Bheki Dlamini, who has himself spent nearly
four years in prison due to his peaceful advocacy of democratic change in
Swaziland and now lives in exile, believes that many especially rural-based
Swazis do not embrace democracy because they are both physically and mentally
dependent on the king’s regime.

– In
Swaziland, more than 70 percent of the population lives in the rural areas, on
Swazi Nation Land under strict control by the chiefs, who are an extension of
the king’s power. Without security of tenure, loyalty to the chief and the king
is important to the survival of a rural Swazi. The only form of security is to
not be seen to challenge the status quo, he says.

A
question of semantics and parties
Bheki Dlamini also sees the understanding of what ‘democracy’ means as another
important reason why especially rural Swazis do not see themselves as
democrats.

– In
Swaziland, the word ‘democracy’ has been deliberately distorted by the regime,
who say that democracy is tantamount to toppling the monarchy, whereas we could
have a functioning constitutional democracy, Dlamini says.

– 24
percent in Swaziland is a good figure considering the political context people
live in. From independence in 1968, political parties have only existed for
five years until they were banned in 1973. Swaziland is an authoritarian
regime. To compare Swaziland to the rest of Africa is therefore unfair as most
other countries allow political parties. They are consolidating their
democracies; we haven’t even properly started the democratization process.

‘We
want democracy now’
Bheki Dlamini says he is cautiously optimistic about the realization of a
democratic Swaziland and that he strongly believes that the potential of Swazis
will be unleashed, once they are free to think and express what they think and
to form organisations to pursue those ideas.

– The
regime cannot camouflage its oppressive nature under the veil of tradition and
culture forever. We want democracy and we want it now, he says.

Friday, 2 December 2016

The recent passing of the 26th anniversary
of Black Wednesday when troops invaded a campus of the University of Swaziland
reminds us that little has changed in the kingdom ruled by King Mswati III,
sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.

Police, troops and security forces continue to take
the attitude of ‘attack first, ask questions later’ when dealing with student
grievances.

As recently as October 2016, police
fired gunshots at protesting students
at Limkokwing University of Creative Technology at Sidwashini. At least four students had ‘serious
injuries’, according to the Times of Swaziland, the kingdom’s only independent daily newspaper.

Students had been protesting about the poor
quality of teaching at the university and inferior facilities.

The Times
reported, ‘According to eyewitnesses, about 200 students screamed and ran
helter-skelter after police from the Operational Support Service Unit (OSSU)
fired at least six shots in attempt to disperse the protesting students who
were barred from coming within 100 metres of the university gate by the High
Court.’

In February 2016 at the University of
Swaziland Kwaluseni campus Swazi security forces attacked students
by driving
an armoured troop carrier at speed into a crowd, injuring one so badly her
back was broken.

The Times of Swaziland, the only
independent daily newspaper in the kingdom reported, ‘a Royal Swaziland Police
(RSP) Operational Services Unit (OSSU) casspir drove at high speed into a group
of about 2,000 students, who, when they realised that the vehicle was not
stopping, ran in all directions.’

Students at the university had been protesting and
boycotting classes to protest about delays in registration.

Police and security forces in Swaziland routinely
violently attack students when they engage in protest.

A report published today in UNISWA Today, a student on-line newspaper site, said, ‘Three hours
from now students were supposed to sit for their first examination paper. As
this report is written, the S-block has become a jail since students can’t
leave the residence. Anyone who is leaving his dormitory is being captured.
Police have even started raiding the dormitories, the intention is unknown.’

In a separate report UNISWA Today said a university warden at the UNISWA Luyengo Campus
allowed officers of the Swaziland state security force OSSU to raid all
dormitory rooms and to sjambock ‘all students who are found having squatted in
other’s rooms’.

Student Representative Council (SRC) Vice President
Anthony Mthembu, writing on UNISWA Today
said, ‘The operation started at 23.30hrs and ended at about 3am. He also
ordered that all SRC members be arrested as they are “ring leaders”. To ensure
that he gave them our room numbers and a master key.

‘They arrived at my room at around 01.30 and tried opening my door but couldn’t
since I had inserted my key inside and fully twisted it. They threatened to
camp outside my room and asked me where Max [Maxwell Dlamini, SRC President]
is.

‘I resisted to which they threw teargas in my room,
that I resisted too, but they tried to break in and my roommate opened. The
squabble lasted for about 45 minutes. Upon opening they clapped me and alleged
that there are petrol bombs in my room.

‘They searched all my suitcases, CPU and monitor cartons, cabinets, washing
basket and anything you can think of. They even came to an extent of mistaking
a wireless mouse for a “bomb.”’

Students were then taken to police stations for
questioning.

In a separate case in August 2012, two students were
shot in the head at close range with rubber bullets, during a dispute about
the number of scholarships awarded by the government. Reports
from the Centre for Human Rights and Development, Swaziland, said several other
students were injured by police batons and kicks.

In February 2012, police fired teargas at students
from Swaziland College of Technology (SCOT) who boycotted
classes after the Swazi Government did not pay them their allowances.

In November 2011, armed
police attacked students at the recently-opened private Limkokwing
University. The Swazi Observer said
Limkokwing students reported that police ‘attacked them unprovoked as they were
not armed’.

The newspaper added, ‘During a visit to the
institution about 10 armed officers were found standing guard by the gate’. The
Observer said police fired as they
tried to disperse the students.

In January 2010, Swaziland Police reportedly
fired bullets at protesting university students, injuring two of them. They
denied it and said they ‘only’ fired teargas. Students from UNISWA had
attempted to march through the kingdom’s capital, Mbabane, to call for an
increase in their allowances.

Thursday, 1 December 2016

A
Swaziland parliamentary committee has ordered an investigation into the
standard of qualifications held by academic staff at the university King Mswati
III wants to host his proposed University of Transformation.

Students
had petitioned the Swazi Government saying many lecturers only held Bachelor
degrees and had just themselves qualified from the university.

Limkokwing has been at the centre of continuing protests from students
about standards of teaching and equipment since the university opened in 2011. According to its website, Limkokwing in Swaziland only offers ‘associate
degrees’ which are at a level below Bachelor degrees and in many institutions
are known as diplomas.

The Swazi Observer reported on Monday (28
November 2016) that a parliamentary select committee said the Ministry of
Education’s Higher Education Council, ‘should within 14 days, revisit the issue
of qualifications of the academic staff of the university and make necessary recommendations,
particularly if indeed it would be confirmed the university engaged its former
students to work as lecturers instead of teaching assistants or tutors’.

In August
2016, King Mswati, the absolute monarch in Swaziland and chair of the Southern
African Development Community (SADC), announced he intended to start a University of Transformation for the entire SADC region
within twelve months and that it should be housed at Limkokwing, a private
university in the Swazi capital Mbabane, with its base in Malaysia.